Actress who shared Bulger killer’s photo walks free

ACTRESS Tina Malone avoided jail yesterday for sharing a picture and the new name of one of James Bulger’s killers.

The Shameless star breached an injunction making it illegal to identify Jon Venables or Robert Thompson, who tortured and killed James, two, in 1993 when they were both ten.

Malone, 55, claimed she didn’t know the Facebook post she made in February last year broke the law.

Appearing at the High Court in London yesterday, she admitted contempt of court and was handed an eightmonth prison sentence suspended for two years.

She was also ordered to pay £10,000 in prosecution costs to the Attorney General.

The court heard Malone, pictured, had been ‘suffering from serious anxiety and depression’ when she shared the image of Venables online.

The actress, who played Mimi Maguire in the Channel 4 series, said: ‘I didn’t know it was illegal. If I had I wouldn’t have done it.’ She added: ‘Isn’t everything on the internet? Why am I here and not [Facebook chief] Mark Zuckerberg?’

Sentencing Malone, Lord Chief Justice Burnett said she now accepted anonymity had been granted to protect Thompson and Venables from the public and the post was made during a period of ‘particular difficulty’.